Around the World; U.S. Official Finds No Repression in Haiti

UPI

Published: April 3, 1982

MIAMI, April 2—
The third-ranking official of the Justice Department says he is convinced that there is ''no political repression'' in Haiti.

Associate Attorney General Rudolph W. Giuliani, testifying Thursday at a hearing of a class-action lawsuit seeking the release of 2,100 refugees in Government detention camps, said that repression in Haiti ''simply does not exist now'' and that refugees had nothing to fear from the Government of Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Mr. Giuliani said he visited Haiti two weeks ago and met with several officials, including President Duvalier. ''Political repression is not the major reason for leaving Haiti,'' Mr. Giuliani said. He said he reached that conclusion after Mr. Duvalier personally assured him that Haitians returning home from the United States were not persecuted.

The suit charges that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has discriminated against the Haitians by illegally detaining them and denying them access to lawyers.